James Siena
James Siena was born in California in 1957 and received his BFA in 1979 from Cornell University. He is an American Abstract Expressionist artist based in New York City. Siena's art is typically created through a series of self-imposed constraints also sometimes referred to as visual algorithms —rules Siena decides on before sitting down to work. In most of his work he establishes a basic unit and action and repeats it indefinitely. The patterns remind me of a visual eye trick book we used to have, which used math and colors to hide 3D images in the pictures.
Siena creates paintings, drawings, and prints in which hand-rendered procedural abstractions, methodically executed, cover a wide range of modalities and produce multiple visual and psychological effects. Siena's work stimulates both the eye and the brain. As Roberta Smith wrote in an early review of his paintings: "Mr. Siena is unusually adept at translating the mental into the visual. His paintings think as good as they look." The jewel-like surfaces of his paintings become equally compelling when transformed into the medium of intaglio printmaking. Tactile, compressed and intricate, the work is above all emphatically physical, as seen in the raised surface of the etched line, and the attentive use of color.
James Siena was born in California in 1957 and received his BFA in 1979 from Cornell University. He is an American Abstract Expressionist artist based in New York City. Siena's art is typically created through a series of self-imposed constraints also sometimes referred to as visual algorithms —rules Siena decides on before sitting down to work. In most of his work he establishes a basic unit and action and repeats it indefinitely. The patterns remind me of a visual eye trick book we used to have, which used math and colors to hide 3D images in the pictures.
Siena creates paintings, drawings, and prints in which hand-rendered procedural abstractions, methodically executed, cover a wide range of modalities and produce multiple visual and psychological effects. Siena's work stimulates both the eye and the brain. As Roberta Smith wrote in an early review of his paintings: "Mr. Siena is unusually adept at translating the mental into the visual. His paintings think as good as they look." The jewel-like surfaces of his paintings become equally compelling when transformed into the medium of intaglio printmaking. Tactile, compressed and intricate, the work is above all emphatically physical, as seen in the raised surface of the etched line, and the attentive use of color.
I admire Siena's work and attention to detail. It reminds me of the work of another artist that I am very close to, my little brother Isaac. Since I am aspiring to become a teacher, he is my best chance at practicing my skills. However, Isaac thinks very differently than I do. He works with permanent markers to make elaborate, methodical, extremely detailed pieces, just like Siena's. However, he is also twelve and thinks he knows everything and therefore has nothing to gain from looking at the work of others or branching out from what he knows. I hope to teach him about what he can evolve into by showing him James Siena's interesting paintings and prints.
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